Waris Ahluwalia of House of Waris is a jewellery designer based in New York. Recently inducted into the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), his pieces are noted for their unique beauty and craftsmanship...
Waris Ahluwalia of House of Waris is a jewellery designer based in New York. Recently inducted into the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), his pieces are noted for their unique beauty and craftsmanship. Waris has also had a number of acting roles in films, most notably Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited, as well as Luca Guadagnino's sensuous extravaganza I am Love. AnOther Magazine caught up with him to discuss love, history and politics.
You’ve done so many different things – what is it about designing jewellery that has kept your attention?
It’s all encompassing; there’s a whole world that comes with it. It’s not only designing the piece, I go and sit with the craftsmen, I live that experience. My boxes are handmade by a guy in Delhi, and my life is so much richer, instead of just being in the world of New York, London, Paris. I look forward to the day when I can go and get my own gold; where I know every hand that has touched this ring, this necklace…
You published a book earlier this year called To India With Love: From New York to Mumbai. Could you tell us about that?
I happen to be someone who believes in personal responsibility. It is the collapse of an empire in America; all empires fall, it’s inevitable, but then something has to rise from the ashes and that’s what I want to talk about. I’m not super-patriotic, but the US is where I live and it’s the passport that I carry. People think they have to give up things to make a difference to the world, but you don’t have to. When the terror attacks happened in Bombay in November 2008, the idea that I would just sit here in NY and say, "Oh man, that’s terrible," or just give some money was not enough. We did To India With Love with Assouline Publishing, for which 70 people from around the world gave a photo and a story about India – that’s doing something. After 9/11 we the US got so much support from around the world, and then after the attacks happened in Bombay it was in the [international] press for four days, and then it was like, "goodbye." But it was time for us to give back, because you can’t contain love, you can just share it.
Do you imagine House of Waris as a platform for collaboration and creativity?
That’s the idea, whether it’s jewellery or it’s this book, or anything. There are all sorts of things on that list, but I’m aware that you have to do it one at a time and I’m aware that you have to do it well. I won't do anything unless it’s the absolute best. We will be launching a new product, the first that is not jewellery, in September.
What inspires your jewellery?
All the things I’ve ever done are inspired by love and history. And then I also add in a disclaimer that says, "I don’t claim to understand either of those things. It’s places like India and Rome and Turkey that I am drawn to because I can feel the history through my feet. Then I have the other side, where I live in the land of now and tomorrow, New York. So a lot of the time people say my work speaks of a bridge between the east and the west, but even more than east meets west, there’s the past and the future, and that’s where I am.
How would you describe your jewellery to someone who doesn’t know it?
I would use something someone else said. It was Italian Vanity Fair that came up with this term, which I would never have expected – "Punk Maharaja" – it’s the same idea of past and future, east and west.
Do you have a favourite piece of yours?
There’s a ruby necklace that I really like because of its simplicity. It’s just links and there are little rubies set inside of it. It has 40 carats worth of rubies, but it’s not flashy. It takes a month at least to make one of these pieces and it's subtle, but it's bananas. Things that I appreciate don’t need to be showy.
Interview by Caroline Lever.
Read Caroline's interview with Hanif Kureishi here.
